Robert Eisenschitz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Karl Eisenschitz (born January 14, 1898 in Vienna , † July 15, 1968 in London ) was an Austro-British chemist.

Life and activity

Eisenschitz was a son of the Viennese lawyer Emil Eisenschitz and his wife Felicie Auguste, nee. Sharpener. After attending school, he took part in the First World War with the Imperial and Royal Army from 1916 to 1918. During the war he was awarded a medal for bravery.

From 1918 to 1924 Eisenschitz studied chemistry at the Universities of Vienna and Munich as well as at the Technical University of Karlsruhe. In 1924 he received his doctorate with a thesis supervised by Alfred Reis on the material carriers of the spectra-colored flames .

From 1924 to 1927 Eisenschitz worked as a chemist at the AEG in Berlin , before he joined the department for theoretical physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry , headed by Lise Meitner , in 1927.

After the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Eisenschitz was exposed to social downgrading due to his - according to National Socialist definition - Jewish descent. He was spared from being dismissed from the civil service on the basis of the law on the reintroduction of the professional civil service due to an exceptional paragraph that allowed him to remain at his post as a veteran of the First World War. Nevertheless, he decided to go to Great Britain in October 1933.

In Great Britain, Eisenschitz was able to take on a position as research assistant at the Davy Faraday Laboratory of the Royal Institution in London with the support of the Academic Assistance Council in 1933 , where he remained until 1945. From 1946 to 1949 he held a position as a lecturer at University College London.

At the end of the 1930s, Eisenschitz was targeted by the National Socialist police, who classified him as an important target: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a list of people who would be forced through in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles The Wehrmacht should be located and arrested by the SS special commandos following the occupation troops with special priority.

In 1949 Eisenschitz became a member of the Department of Physics at Queen Mary College, University of London, with the rank of reader. In 1957 his position was upgraded to a professorship. In 1965 he retired.

family

Since 1948 Eisenschitz was married to the teacher Eva Regina Laufer (1912–1991), with whom he fathered two children: Aram (* 1948) and Tamara (* 1949).

Fonts (selection)

  • Statistical Theory of Irreversible Processes , 1958.

literature

  • Reinhard Rürup : Robert Karl Eisenschitz. Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Berlin-Dahlem. In: Ders .: Fates and Careers. Memorial book for the researchers expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society by the National Socialists. Göttingen 2008, p. 182f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry Robert Eisenschitz on the special wanted list GB (reproduction on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London)
personal data
SURNAME Eisenschitz, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eisenschitz, Robert Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-British chemist
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 15th July 1968
Place of death London